3158 E Burnside St, Portland, OR 97214
www.musicmillennium.com
What makes Record Store Day important?
RSD deserves most of the credit for the revival of vinyl as a music format over the past 8 years. It took what the world mostly thought of as a dead format and turned it into a format that is now respected by a great deal of music enthusiast. It also brought notice to the public that “Record Stores still exist” after years of the media stating that record stores were on their way out.
What’s your favorite Record Store Day
Music Millennium pioneered live in-store music performances in 1989 by putting a permanent stage in the store for our 20th Anniversary and attempting to have 20 straight days of musical performances to commemorate the occasion. We ended up with 40 straight days of live performances, mostly local. We have done 3500 plus live performances, championing local artists, national and international artist. Some of the highlights include Randy Newman’s only ever in-store performance, where he sang Happy Birthday to us on our Anniversary; Keith Emerson’s only in-store performance where he chose to play our beat-up acoustic piano over the electronic keyboard as well as read from his auto biography; Joe Strummer’s only ever in-store…..and how about Soundgarden playing on street date of “Louder Than Love”! We have also been lucky to have repeat appearances from artists that really enjoyed our store including Steve Earle flying in the week of street of his last 4 releases just to play our store. We pinch ourselves sometimes to make sure this is real.
What does your store have planned for Record Store Day this year?
We are very lucky to have one of the core Music Millennium artists come to our store on RSD this year….Bonnie Raitt! Music Millennium started in 1969 and Bonnie has been giving us great albums for all but those first 2. She may be our all-time biggest selling female artist in the store. When “Nick Of Time” was released, it was out #1 album the first 15 weeks of release. 100 fans will buy a special bundle including the album, a commemorative signed and numbered poster by artist Gary Houston for a price that includes money that will go to the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, for their Music In The Schools Program. They put music programs on at schools in Oregon that do not have music programs.
We will open at 8am, give out free gift bags and have free coffee and muffins for those early arrivers. To top that off, one of my favorite all-time artist, Alejandro Escovedo, who’s first two albums are coming out on vinyl that day, will play live in our store that evening. What a great job I have.
Why is physical retail so important?
The physical retail experience is one of the best experiences a music person can have. If you have a great independent retail store in your town with great knowledgeable people working at it, the interaction and knowledge that you obtain is priceless. I still get that going to other record stores personally. Vinyl will be the savior of physical retail because it is bringing new faces into our stores, something that was lost in the digital age. These customers are buying vinyl and going home and interacting with it. Reading liner notes, looking at the covers, sitting in front of their stereo and really paying attention to the music. Some of this was lost when CDs took over as the dominant format. The type was too small and in many cases, they albums were being made too long. 20 minutes a side on vinyl is a good attention span to sit there and listen….then get up and play another side. There is a future for physical goods and it will keep on growing because the vinyl listening experience is one of the best things a person can experience in life.
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